Ross DeAndrea
NOTE: This page is not free to edit. Characters are solely owned by ScottyBlue (dA name Ascotia-Bluefleck. Also, Spoilers below.) Gugliemo Rossini DeAndrea was born in Italy, but his parents emigrated to America when he was a very small child. He went by the name of Ross, a more American-sounding name, as he got older. His parents died when he was still young, and he got involved with shady companions. He was arrested multiple times for petty theft and other small crimes that his friends goaded him into, and was in and out of jail for many years. However, he was a gentle man and not mean-spirited, and was not proud of what he had become. He resolved, after talking to a priest, to go straight and begin to help his fellow man. However, though he did random acts of kindness to poor people he came across, he found that finding a job when he had a criminal record was not easy, and the temptation to get into trouble in the big city was just too great. He kept getting roped into things he didn't want to be a part of just to make ends meet. He became even more desperate when his sister and her American husband died in a train accident and left him custody of their son Myron. Finally, a woman in the crime ring he was trying to break ties with took pity on him, and told him that he ought to go to the country, somewhere where people didn't know him. She suggested that he go to her father, Herb Cromarty, who was known in the town for his kindly and forgiving nature. She also wrote a letter asking Cromarty to find DeAndrea a job and a place to stay with his nephew. Ross DeAndrea was accepted as a secretary by Cromarty, and showed he actually had pretty good business sense. He never looked back once he started working for him, going entirely straight and never taking a dollar from anyone that wasn't earned honestly. However, Cromarty's son Luke absolutely despised him, no matter how nice DeAndrea tried to be. To Luke, DeAndrea represented someone trying to steal the family business from him. Also, Luke's runaway sister was someone Luke hated with a deep vengeance, and the fact DeAndrea had been sent by her made him hate him all the more. DeAndrea, through the years, began to slowly make friends in the somewhat suspicious townsfolk. He also saw to it that Myron made friends with the other children. He became close, though not romantically, to the widow Brenda Gilbert. helping her with many household duties and just being a good friend to her. When she started dating Luke Cromarty, DeAndrea was concerned. He knew Luke's secretly obsessive, possessive, and vindictive nature, and warned Brenda she should get out of the relationship before it was too late. Brenda, who already had fallen for someone else anyway, heeded his advice and broke off the courtship. This event made Luke hate DeAndrea still further. Things came to a head when Herb announced his intention to make DeAndrea a partner in the business with himself and Luke. DeAndrea wasn't sure he felt right, taking some of Luke's inheritance, and asked for time to think the matter over. In the interval, while DeAndrea was out walking and thinking over the matter, Herb Cromarty was killed in a tragic accident. Luke Cromarty, who had no scruples whatsoever, was the first to find his father's body, and immediately messed with the scene to make it look like a murder. He then testified to certain lies in court that DeAndrea couldn't disprove. DeAndrea fought and protested his innocence to the end, but was convicted and hanged for the murder anyway. Before his death, he begged Myron not to let this event embitter him, and told him that sooner or later the truth would be made known. Category:In Memory of Frankie Hill Characters